100.The Realm Where No One Has Gone Before (Part II)

The World Tree Territory is the collective name for a group of stars.

The people of the Divine Realm call it the Nine Realms, and there is a legend about the World Tree when the Asgardian civilization rose in ancient times.

In the eyes of the people of the Divine Domain, the entire world (the Nine Realms System) is supported by the World Tree.

It is a mysterious force that hovers among the stars, like a tree that grows luxuriantly, and grows countless branches.

The nine worlds, including Asgard, are located on the trunk, crown, and branches of the World Tree, as well as several roots, and the mysterious power of the World Tree runs through these nine worlds, forming a huge whole.

This statement is very much like an ethereal myth, but the successive god-kings have been blessed by the power of the World Tree, which proves that the World Tree that cannot be seen by people is real.

Despite its existence, Asgard is an unsolved mystery in science and magic.

It is said that this secret was known only to the god-kings of the past, and that the origin of Asgard's magic, the Rune of Rune, was also learned by the first god-kings when they drank the water of the Fountain of Wisdom and peeked into the mysteries of the World Tree.

The god-kings of all generations were people of both strength and wisdom, in other words, they were all top-tier warriors and spellcasters.

Including Odin too.

Although the old god-king didn't like to use rune magic very much, and always used the endless divine power of lightning to solve problems, he was indeed a master of rune magic.

"We're almost there."

On the road leading from the peak of the Jotunheim Origin to the mountain valley, Jane rode in the saddle of the Toothbiter. Foster looked into the distance, and the blessing of Thor's godhead gave Jane excellent eyesight.

She said to Thor, who was riding on the grinder beside her:

"I saw that there was a giant in the valley, and it didn't welcome us, and Heimdall and Sif were kept out of the valley."

"That's Mimir, the guardian of the Fountain of Wisdom."

Little Loki, who was riding with Thor, looked up and said to Jane:

"It is the last of the Divine Giants, and it guards the Wisdom Spring day and night, although it is said that every lucky person in the city can draw water from the Wisdom Spring."

"But in reality, Mimir will only allow the blood of the Odin family to be close to the spring."

"It made a pact with Odin's ancestors to allow the future king to seek wisdom from the springs, but in exchange the Asgardians must protect the World Tree territory for generations."

Little Loki glanced at little Hela, who was sitting behind Jane, and said:

"It's an old legend, and even a lot of Asgardians think it's nonsense."

"Some idiots think that ascending to the throne only requires killing Odin, but in reality, the steps to becoming the king of the gods are tedious."

"It's not just the throne that looks sacred, it means something deeper."

"Who are you talking about?"

Little Hela, though occasionally playful, had a very good brain, and she bared her teeth fiercely at little Loki, and she said:

"Just kill Odin! I don't need a fountain of wisdom to be a queen! ”

"You're just dreaming."

Little Loki retorted without timidity:

"Even if you kill Odin and sit on the throne, you can't sit still, and if you don't drink the wisdom spring, the World Tree will resist you, and you will not be able to mobilize the power of the star field, and you will be ousted from the power at the slightest disturbance."

"Your so-called rebellion seemed to Odin back then to be like a child's house."

Little Loki seemed to be deliberately provoking little Hela, and he mocked fiercely:

"He didn't want you to be king at all, otherwise you should have known about the legends of the Fountain of Wisdom and the World Tree, but you don't!"

"You little devil, what nonsense! Be careful I tear your mouth apart! ”

Little Hela screamed, and little Loki snorted without showing weakness, he crossed his arms, looked at Hela's small body, and said:

"Aren't you also a little devil who was deceived by Merlin, and you're embarrassed to talk about me."

Seeing that the two 7 or 8-year-olds were about to fight together, Thor hurriedly talked and covered Loki's mouth with his silver-white mechanical prosthetic, and Jane over there hugged little Hela who was dancing like a cat.

"Stop arguing."

Thor discouraged:

"It's all a family, and we need to be united at this moment."

"Thor!"

There was a cry in the snow ahead, and then Sif pounced out of the snow.

The female general, who is always heroic, threw herself into Thor's arms with a delicate posture at this time.

She thought she had lost Thor, and she held the man as if she were going to rub him into her body.

Thor stole a glance at Jane, who was calming the angry little Hela and didn't seem to notice it at all.

He patted Sif on the shoulder, and he could feel the emotions that gushed out of this female warrior who had grown up with him at this time, the kind of feelings that had become very pure after experiencing life and death.

It warmed Thor's heart as he did when he first met Jane.

"Thor, come here!"

Heimdall stood at the entrance to the valley leading to the Fountain of Wisdom with his sword in hand, and the brave general called out to Thor, who said a few words to Sif and hurried forward with the Eternal Spear.

"Mimir is waiting for you."

Heimdall said to Thor:

"I told the giant about your visit, and it only allowed you to enter."

Thor nodded, and he turned to look at the people behind him.

Little Loki raised his hand and gave him a thumbs up, while little Hela crossed her arms and didn't look at Thor.

They were Thor's relatives, and even though there had always been such and such things in the past, they still accompanied Thor to this place at this moment.

Jane and Sif stood beside the two children, Sif with worry in her eyes and Jane with a war hammer in her hand looking at her encouragingly.

It's as if Jane and Sif have reversed their personalities at this moment.

Thor waved at them, and under Heimdall's gaze, the prince, who had gone through vicissitudes and experienced the ups and downs of life, did not hesitate too much.

He strode into the valley of the fountain of wisdom with the dusty Eternal Spear.

It's like walking through a misty door and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

What was in the valley was a secret that many people were curious about, but only the god-kings of the past knew about it, and they never mentioned it.

Because, that is a secret that only a king can know.

———————

"Huh?"

Thor stepped into the valley, he had passed through the clouds and mist, and thought that what appeared in front of him would be a beautiful mountain with the fragrance of birds and flowers and the same in all seasons.

But the next second, in the twinkling stars, what he saw was a beating star.

He stood among the shining stars, and could only vaguely see the starlight turning into a rainbow, extending outward into infinity among the stars.

And when he looked up, he could see the starlight of the landscape, and the invisible shadows were obscuring the starlight, as if they were living creatures.

"This..."

Thor looked at the scenery in amazement.

This was very different from the fountain of wisdom he imagined, but when he thought about it, it seemed that he had not said it to him in his father's advice.

The fountain of wisdom must be a physical spring, right?

Thor thought that the Fountain of Wisdom was located at the base of the second tree of the World Tree, and from this perspective, wouldn't the rainbow-like starlight in front of him be...

"Yes, that's the second root of the World Tree."

A voice answered Thor's doubts.

The prince turned back and saw a strange giant sitting behind him.

It is about the height of the Frost Giant, but has an Asgardian skin and wears clothes made of emerald green vines.

With full eyes and facial features, it looks quite majestic.

Thor noticed that the giant's skin had pulsing runes in every place, giving it a sense of intelligence.

"Few people have the privilege of seeing the World Tree in its true form, and you are one of them, Thor. Odinson. ”

Mimir, the giant sitting in the midst of the stars, said to Thor in a calm voice:

"Your father came here a few months ago, and he told me that you were going to visit this place, and he chose you to be the next king of the Asgardians, though it seems to me that you are not ready."

"Yes, I'm not ready."

Thor replied generously:

"My heart is full of doubts, maybe you can answer them for me."

"I'm not responsible for answering any of your questions."

The giant shook his head, pointed to the stars in front of him, and said to Thor:

"The Fountain of Wisdom is there, it contains all the questions in this group of stars, and the answers to each one, you can find them for yourself, and this is the last step in your becoming king."

"Back then, your father received knowledge from the Fountain of Wisdom, but the burden of knowledge made Odin never smile again."

Mimir said eloquently:

"Actually, it seems to me that Odin did not understand the role of knowledge, even though that knowledge made him the most powerful creature in the stars."

The giant shrugged his shoulders and said kindly to Thor:

"The purpose of the pursuit of knowledge is to find wisdom, and the search for wisdom is to search for truth."

"Knowledge is only a tool, truth is the goal."

"Unfortunately, your father, like your ancestors, stayed only at the level of wisdom and did not go deep into the truth."

"He went further and further down the path of self-wisdom and stubbornness, and it was not until after you were born that he realized his fallacy."

"But he's missed the only chance to detach, so he can only pin his hopes on you."

The giant's evaluation of Odin made Thor frown.

Armed with the Spear of Eternity, he said to the giant:

"The more you talk about me, the more confused I become."

"It's okay, it's okay if you don't understand."

The giant waved its hand, and it pointed to the sea of stars in front of Thor as it said:

"Go, listen to the fountain of wisdom, drink it, and you will understand what I am talking about."

Thor wanted to ask more, but the mysterious giant Mimir stopped talking, as if it were a stone, and Thor had no choice but to turn and walk closer to the place where the stars gathered in front of him.

He walked into the starlight, which surrounded him like a living thing, but did not open the way to him.

Thor knew it was a ritual.

His father had paid an eye in exchange for "drinking" the water of the Fountain of Wisdom, which was also the tradition of successive kings of the Divine Domain.

It is not just a simple sacrifice, but also a meaning of "exchange".

Only by giving up a part of the body can more wisdom be integrated into the individual.

Thor took a deep breath and placed his hand on his left eye.

In the glow of the rune halo, intense pain erupted in his thoughts, and Thor pushed what he was holding into the starlight, and the moment his left eye dissipated, the starlight of satisfaction gathered and merged into Thor's body.

He lost an eye.

But there is a bright light in front of him.

Countless images bloomed before Thor's eyes, and countless Thor moved in that frame.

He saw himself armed with a warhammer and the Avengers in New York against the invading Zetarians.

He saw himself standing in the flames of the ruins of Asgard, his parents and family at his feet, and in a sea of panic, the roaring Surtr roared and stabbed the Twilight Branch into the realm of the gods.

He sees himself and Loki in a barren world facing the awakened Dark Elves, and sees Loki killed by the Dark Elves.

He also saw himself being knocked to the ground by Thanos, who was armed with the Infinity Gauntlet, and the inhabitants of Asgard who had migrated with him were slaughtered by the purple flames.

He saw another one-eyed self holding a storm-howling tomahawk and cutting off the head of Thanos in a fit of rage, with Carol, Tony, Steve, and Natasha by his side.

There are many more images, more unbelievable stories, each with Thor bathed in thunder fighting.

The images are so real that it's as if Thor had experienced it himself.

But in reality he had never experienced any of this...

Thor also noticed that in these images, everyone he knew, including Hela, who had slaughtered an entire Asgard, had no trace of Merlin at all.

Ravens never seemed to have ever appeared.

"It's me, it's Thor. Odinson. ”

Thor looked at the glittering picture in front of him, and he had a wonderful realization.

"Countless worlds, countless destinies, countless Thor, everything I see, should be the path of destiny that Thor has taken..."

"But I didn't walk any of them."

"My destiny has been changed."

Thor whispered, and all the images froze at the same time, dissipating into the flying starlight, in which he saw the scene of his first encounter with Merlin.

He saw Merlin for the first time in the sun of the Texas desert town of St. Van Gonza, and it was at that time that the waves of fate emerged.

At this point, looking at his memories from a third-party perspective, Thor's gaze fell on Merlin's at the beginning, as if another picture scroll had been opened.

In the inverted streamer of the stars, Thor sees the trajectory of Merlin's life.

It's upside down.

From the time he joined S.H.I.E.L.D., those lives that Merlin had never told anyone else about, all the way back.

In the midst of the fires in Wisconsin in 1973, Thor saw the mysterious figure that appeared in the flames, holding the newborn Merlin in his arms.

The picture freezes here.

Starlight seemed into waiting for Thor to make a decision.

Do you want to keep scrolling?

Do you want to make up your mind to step into a realm that no one has ever done before, and truly see through the secrets of the origin and end of these stars?

Thor hesitated.

In the process of "drinking" the spring of wisdom, he had a premonition.

If he goes any further, he will become the second creature after Merlin to know the ultimate mystery of the stars.

The starlight is surging, the secrets of the original rune have been opened to Thor, and the divine power of the World Tree is slowly blessing, and he has accomplished the purpose of this trip.

It's okay to stop there.

All secrets come at a price, and Thor knows it.

He looked at the still light in front of him, and once he stepped into it, he couldn't turn back.

But Merlin and his father secretly spent so much effort to send him here at this time, which meant that they wanted him to see the truth.

So, do you want to read on?

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